1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and method for simulating a hard disk and, more particularly, to a device and method using a memory to simulate a hard disk.
2. Description of Related Art
Along with continual popularity of computers, the functions of a computer have become more and more powerful, and there are more and more peripherals that support computers such as card readers, USB devices, 1394 devices, and so on. With the enhancement of software technology and availability of various kinds of software in the market, users are attracted to use computers more and more frequently. Computers have become indispensable tools in everyday life, and they usually store various data for user access.
However, it still takes a lot of time for a computer to search for data. A lot of data are stored on the hard disk of a computer. Due to the structure of a hard disk, much of the access time is wasted in the seek-time for moving the magnetic head and the rotation time of the spindle motor. These are the primary reasons that the data access speed for a hard disk is not comparable to that for memory. Therefore, when a computer accesses data in a hard disk, even though the central processor is fast, it still needs to wait for the data processing time of the hard disk.
In order to increase the speed of hard disk, U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,926 discloses a hard disk accelerating system for a computer, in which an IO instruction issued by a conventional central processor is separated into a read operation and a write operation that can be performed simultaneously. Moreover, a programmable hardware register adjusts the hard disk IO cycle time to achieve maximum compatibility with different hard drive speeds. The above US patent still stores data in hard disks. Therefore, when accessing data in a hard disk, the waste in the seek-time for moving the magnetic head and the rotation time of the spindle motor cannot be avoided.